Arbitration News

Judicial Council Approves Ethics Standards for Arbitrators

San Francisco—At a public meeting here today, the Judicial Council of California adopted comprehensive ethics standards for contractual arbitrators in California. Arbitration is an alternative method of dispute resolution held outside the traditional court system.

The new rules, the first of their kind in the country, are minimum standards of conduct for arbitrators that are designed to protect the integrity and fairness of the arbitration process.  The standards were developed by the legal staff of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in conjunction with the 19-member Judicial Council Blue Ribbon Panel of Experts on Arbitrator Ethics, appointed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George.

As required by Senate Bill 475 (Escutia, D-Whittier), enacted last year, most of the standards will take effect July 1, 2002. The Judicial Council approved a July 1, 2003 effective date for Standard 7 (b)(12) relating to disclosure of provider rganizations’ relationships in consumer arbitrations due to the time needed to implement the requirement and related pending legislation.

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	Did You Know?
	Arbitration mostly leads to a binding agreement. Arbitration is an alternative to resolving disputes in court. Arbitration allows the parties involved to choose an individual or several individuals with knowledge and expertise in the subject matter of the dispute to hear each party's evidence and present a binding decision. With arbitration, the arbitrator makes a decision for the parties involved in the dispute, as opposed to mediation, which involves a mediator actively attempting to move the parties to agreement.